Until last Spring, our gardening efforts were largely misses. We had good intentions but by the end of each season, we had clearly failed. But last year was different.

I don’t know exactly what we did that was different, but for whatever reason, it “worked.” Our vegetable garden grew like crazy, and while we didn’t quite get the harvest we had hoped, it was a major, positive learning experience. And if we’ve learned anything over the years of failed and successful attempts at gardening, it’s that you always start the next season better than the one before it.

So, we decided that for this summer’s garden, instead of buying starter plants from Home Depot, we’d start from seeds. And that’s what we did today.

It’s worth noting that 2 years ago, we attempted starting from seeds directly in the ground and it was an epic failure. This time we’ve wised up a bit and are starting them indoors, specifically in egg cartons!

We go through eggs like…something that goes through lots eggs. Which gives us quite a lot of leftover egg cartons and what better way to reuse them than for some seed starting!

Setting Up the Seed Starters

Using the egg cartons to start the seeds was really simple. I used about 1 gallon of compost dirt from our raised beds and sifted out larger rocks by hand. Then I just filled each carton, lightly packed them down, and BOOM! Done!

I then spent about an hour planting the seeds we’re wanting for this year’s summer garden, set them under our grow lights, labeled them and we’re in business.

Well, I say we’re in business…we’ll see if any of this works. Given we’ve never actually done this, it’s possible (probable?) this won’t work…but I’m betting it will, regardless of our lack of experience.